Interfaith Spiritual Direction Certificate

August 2015 - March 2016

Helping people discover a relationship with the spiritual aspect of being human

This course is designed for those who feel called to a private practice in personal, one-on-one spiritual direction, and who anticipate working with clients from a variety of faith traditions. It is also well-suited for those who intend to do group spiritual direction, and for those of other helping professions who want to add a spiritual guidance perspective to their current work (such as psychotherapists, health practitioners, ministers and chaplains). Upon successful completion of the program, participants are qualified to provide spiritual direction in the context of their choosing.

Our Interfaith Spiritual Direction Program teaches a non-directive Interfaith approach. We do not believe in telling people how to think, what to believe, how they are supposed to feel, or what to do in any specific circumstance. We believe that the person who comes to us for direction is the expert on his or her own spiritual life, and that the person knows, deep down, what is best. Thus we teach skills to help people discern their own deep inner wisdom and to live with a deeper sense of connection and alignment with Spirit.

This offering is designed to inspire, nurture and educate those who are called to serve as Spiritual Directors in an Interfaith capacity in our increasingly diverse world. Our innovative course features a combination of the study of world religions, an exploration of personal spirituality, and spiritual direction skills...all in a creatively infused context.

Areas of Study

Spiritual Direction Skills

Definitions, varieties and history of spiritual direction

Modes of Interfaith Spiritual Direction

Cultivating Holy Listening

Directive and non-directive spiritual direction

Cultivating the compassionate observer within

Methods of Spiritual Discernment

Spiritual Direction with the Ill, Dying & Bereaved

Dreamwork for Guiding Non-Religious People

Guiding Non-Religious People

Group Spiritual Direction and Group Supervision

Relationship, Generational, and Sexual Issues

The Spiritual Experience

God’s presence in daily life

Spiritual Life Stories

Images of the Divine & their impact upon the spiritual life

Imagery for people of various faith styles

Faith Styles & their impact on the spiritual guidance process

The power of vulnerability: Dark Night of the Soul

Varieties of prayer and devotional disciplines

Addiction and the Longing for Transcendence

The archetypal spiritual journey

World Religions

Native Traditions

Taoism

Buddhism

Hinduism

Islam

Zoroastrianism

Judaism

Christianity

Personal Development & Integration

Discerning one’s call

Rules & Ethics: Boundaries, confidentiality, and self-care

Generational Issues in Spiritual Direction

Sexual Issues in Spiritual Direction

Establishing a business practice of Spiritual Direction

Curriculum

To be certified as an Interfaith Spiritual Director, students are required to complete:

Four Intensive Learning Modules - 5 days each

Each month a team of core and guest faculty guides students in an integral learning experience, incorporating theological, academic, creative and experiential elements. Class content at the modules flows between didactic and experiential, theological and psychological, artistic and reflective modalities. Although each module is different, all of them contain elements of spiritual direction, spirituality, and personal development. Class sessions run from approximately 9am to noon and 1pm to 5 pm each day. Participation at all sessions is required.

30 Individual Spiritual Direction Sessions

Each student is required attend 30 spiritual direction sessions with an approved spiritual director or a therapist with a spiritual focus. Spiritual Directors are hired independently of the school and are compensated for their services directly by the student. To download the Course Catalog, which includes the above information, click here.

Students provide actual spiritual direction sessions to clients to develop and hone their spiritual direction skills. This contextual learning gives each student the opportunity to integrate the concepts and intellectual constructs into the flow of lived experience. This is where each student can test their wings and begin to grow their skills within the supportive structure of our learning community.

12 Supervision Sessions

Students meet with a qualified spiritual director supervisor to review and reflect on their practicum hours.

Personal Spiritual Practice

Each student is required to have a personal spiritual practice to which one is committed. The options for a personal spiritual practice are multiple and flexible. Examples include attendance at a weekly worship service, daily meditation or prayer based on a primary faith tradition, yoga, art, journaling, and so on.

Course Structure

This is a modular course. It features hybrid distance learning in order to serve students from near and far. Our goal is to join the best features of classroom teaching with independent learning to serve the needs of people who cannot spend a great deal of time on a campus and attend classes week after week.

In Person instruction: Students attend four 5-day intensives called Intensive Learning Modules. Students travel to Berkeley, California for important interaction and instruction for the development of personal, interpersonal, and theoretical skills. Information about travel is here.

Independent Study: Between the Intensive Learning Modules, students work independently on homework, practicum, and spiritual practices. They communicate with faculty and classmates via email and social media for information sharing and forwarding assignments.

Educational Approach

ChI’s curriculum has been designed to meet the growing need for inter-religious understanding as a tool for serving the diversity of our world today. Our educational approach is one of multi-modal education, always reaching for the balance of engaging the body as well as the mind and spirit, so that our students may learn to their greatest capacity, while having useful skills and tools with which to serve others.

Read on...

In addition to recognizing the varieties of faiths and culture in our student body, the curriculum is designed based on the knowledge that individuals learn and receive information in a variety of ways. Renowned educator Howard Gardner, author of Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, identified a variety of styles through which individuals learn.

Over our years of teaching, we have discovered what Gardner calls “multiple Intelligences,” and what we call “ways of knowing.” Some of us know the world through movement or singing; these are kinesthetic or musical learners. We may know the Divine through walking or singing—or, like the Sufi Dervishes, as we turn or dance as a form of prayer. ChI has found that the most effective education begins in the cultural comfort zone of didactic presentation and providing foundational context, as strong framework for study and understanding. Subsequently we build on this foundation, weaving all the elements of our program together through experiential and creative learning modalities.

This educational methodology of interweaving promotes an exciting learning environment and encourages individual ways of knowing—as well as serving as a foundation for understanding differences in the ways that others come to know themselves and their relationships to family, community, and Divinity.

Faculty

Rev. Dr. John R. Mabry is the Director of the Interfaith Spiritual Direction Certificate Course for ChI. He has been teaching spiritual guidance for ten years. A United Church of Christ pastor, John pastors Grace North Church (Congregational) in Berkeley, CA and teaches spiritual guidance, world religions, and comparative theology at Sofia University, Santa Clara University, as well as ChI. He is the author of several books on spirituality and interfaith ministry, including Growing Into God: A Beginner’s Guide to Christian Mysticism; Noticing the Divine: An Introduction to Interfaith Spiritual Guidance; and Faith Styles: Ways People Believe, among many others.

The landscape of Interfaith may seem as foreign to you as Morocco, or Nepal. For this reason you need guides on the journey who are knowledgeable, who speak the language because they have been there and have learned from experience, or who can join you in finding the way to ask the questions that will point to the next step on the path. Our Interfaith Spiritual Direction Faculty help to expand students’ working language of Interfaith Spiritual Direction. They interact with the student’s unique gifts of calling and aspiration for spiritual direction in order to support the student’s attainment of the skills and competencies necessary to being a professional and successful spiritual director.

Student Body

Our students come from a diverse range of backgrounds—from nurses to yoga instructors to business people to psychologists. They also come from a diverse range of theological backgrounds—for example, Buddhists, Catholics, and many people who don’t define their spirituality through a specific faith tradition.

We are an adult learning community, growing through each person’s distinctive talents and perspectives. We honor our students' unique spiritual paths and encourage them to continue to nurture their own theological perspectives. We ask each student to bring his or her gifts, talents, and point of view to their individual ministry, and our community as well.

Assistance/access for differently-abled participants can be accommodated with prior arrangement.

To download the Course Catalog, which includes the above information, click here.

About Spiritual Direction

Spiritual Direction (or spiritual guidance) is the art of companioning people on the spiritual journey. To seek to live in alignment with path and soul can be challenging, exhilarating, sometimes even heart-wrenching. A skilled Spiritual Director listens carefully, asks lots of questions, points out things he or she notices that the client may have missed, and supports the client's spiritual unfolding. More ...

Sessions run for 5 days, Monday through Friday, from 9am to 5pm each day in Berkeley, CA. Attendance is required at all sessions.

Applications are accepted on a first come, first served basis.

The course is limited to a total of 20 students.

Request More Information

First Name Last Name Email Phone

Address

City State Zip

For more information check one or more of the following boxes:
Interfaith Studies:
Spiritual Direction:
Transfer or Dual Ministerial Standing:
Single Course-Faith Traditions:
Spiritual Direction Supervision:
Spiritual Psychology:
News & Events: